Volker Ziemendorff lives in Germany and in
Buenos
Aires, Argentina. Active internationally as a concert pianist, with
equal passion he dedicates himself to teaching, especially with
pianistically advanced students.

He has a
profound knowledge of the school of the great argentinian-italian
pianist Fausto Zadra, with whom he studied during nine years, and is
author of a detailed description and analysis of its teachings
and
concepts about piano technique and its didactics. Moreover, he has
acquired ample experience in applying it and transmitting it to his
students.

• • • • •

Biography

Beginning his university studies in literature and languages, among
other subjects, with a scholarship from the Studienstiftung
des deutschen Volkes, Volker Ziemendorff went on to study
piano with
Ralf Nattkemper—a
former student of Yara Bernette, Fausto Zadra and Wilhelm Kempff—at
the Hochschule
für Musik und Theater
Hamburg
(Germany). Additionally, he participated in various masterclasses,
amongst others with Jenny Zaharieva (Sofia) und the Claudio Arrau
student,
Nelson delle Vigne-Fabbri (Brussels).

Independently from his studies in the Hamburg Hochschule, for
many years he studied with Fausto
Zadra in his Ecole
Internationale de Piano
(Lausanne, Switzerland), a place where young pianists from all over
Europe used to meet and learn.

In
recitals, chamber music and as a soloist with orchestra, he has played
in Germany, Argentina, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Great
Britain, and has been invited to international festivals in France and
Argentina.

He
is the author of a detailed technical and didactical analysis of the
Zadra school, which is known to stand out especially among the great
piano traditions, as a refined ‘school of touch’, leading—not least by
way of a systematic study of physiology and movements—to physical
liberty and suppleness, subtlety of touch and sound, and great liberty
of expression.

Over various years he was assistant to Prof. Nattkemper in the
pianistical training of his students at the Hochschule
in Hamburg. Up to the present day, Ziemendorff dedicates an
important part of his activity to teaching, in masterclasses or with
his own regular students.

• • • • •

Press reviews,
commentaries

“... he convinced the audience
with an
impeccable interpretation of Mozart’s concerto
K 415.”

Argentinisches Tageblatt/Diario Argentino
(Buenos Aires)

.....

“Ziemendorff gave a priviledged
place to the
work’s architecture
and formal unity, its clear and impeccable
exposition, detailed in
phrasing ...
“He rendered Schumann’s Kreisleriana
with propriety, with pulchritude and intellectual honesty, and a
reflective kind of distance that impeded the habitual excesses in the
changeable characters of each of the eight musical episodes.
“The concert constituated ... a musical
audition of
sufficient merit to underline the high standard of the pianistic art in
our musical ambience.”

Héctor Coda, La
Nación (Buenos Aires)

.....

“... With two sonatas,
by Haydn
and Mozart, Ziemendorff opened the
recital in a ‘classical’ manner in the word’s best
sense. ... Once and again, Volker Ziemendorff exposed these
contrasts in an accomplished way, fascinating his audience by
his unrestrained virtuosity.
“His pianistical mastery, however, over
a wide extent
of his programme made itself felt in a more introvert and
often
lyrical, rather than wild and extravert way of playing. With
four
works by argentinian composers, the pianist offered a musical vista of
his country of choice, immediately evoking that particular mixture of
melancholy and joie-de-vivre which he himself described as
‘bitter-sweet’, and which thoroughly captivated his audience.
“Following this moment of south-american
inspiration which
bestowed a very special, almost exotic note on the night, the
pianist closed the concert with romantic piano music by Chopin,
which—conceived in a sparkling and fervent manner—set a truly
enthralling
final point to an inspiring and varied recital.”

Frank Ebert, Stuttgarter
Zeitung

.....

“... the best interpretation of
Schubert’s sonata in A mayor [D 959] that I have
heard in my life.”

A. Gialdini (Buenos Aires)

.....

“... shows intellectual
comprehension of the finer points of
style and
is always thoughtful in his interpretations.
“... presented with understanding and
sense of form ...”

Pablo Bardin, Buenos
Aires Herald

.....

“... notable dedication and
professional seriousness. He possesses
excellent pianistical qualities and a musical intelligence and
sensibility of the highest order.
“His musical talent and his particular
pedagogical disposition Englio
destine him to express himself in pianistic teaching. ...”

F. Zadra (Rome)

.....

“... of all the musicians that
I have come to know over the years of my activity at the Hamburg
Musikhochschule, he is one of the most sensitive, intelligent and
sincere; one with artistic integrity. ... His playing stands
out for great intensity, an unerring feeling for musical
style, and deep comprehension of the compositions.”

R. Nattkemper (Hamburg)

.....

“... makes the
piano ‘speak’”

S. Dematteis (Buenos Aires)

.....

“Never before I came to
understand like this what it means to stir to life a
piece of music.”

P. Hartung (Regensburg)

.....

“I congratulate you on your
touch.”

“... opens up
the music to the hearer ... One couldn’t imagine it better in any way
... full of nuances ... All routine is being abandoned, and one learns
to hear it all afresh and anew.”

“One was wishing the
music would go on forever and the piece would never
end...”

“Never in any way impersonal,
always
‘Volker Ziemendorff’.”

“One of the most beautiful
concerts that we have had here.”

“We all know there are many
nowadays who can play fast and loud, or even fast and soft ... But you have something to say.”

“He plays ‘from
within’.”

(Commentaries by listeners)

.....

“That was the best that could
be heard in this concert hall over the last years”